Students from Eindhoven University of Technology have made a game controller measuring 6 by 2.5 metres. With the mega controller you can play the computer game Super Mario, among other things. Playing alone is not possible because you need at least four people who operate the buttons with their feet.
The controller is in front of a building of the Technical University. A student stamps his foot on ‘start’ and the classic Mario game starts on the big screen. The familiar tunes of the game reverberate across the square.
“You need sixty kilos of force to press such a button,” says student Jilles Tils (21). “We put a bag on it during testing, but that didn’t work. Therefore we had to stand or sit on it. It’s physically tough. You have to stomp on the button very often.”
“This is way before my time.”
The mega-controller was made by the students because their Electrotechnical study association has existed for 65 years. They wanted to set the record for the ‘biggest game controller in the world’, but they didn’t succeed. “Then we had to make it out of plastic and we didn’t want that. That was too expensive and it is polluting. This one is made of wood. That is also easier to come by.”
However, the Technical University of Delft was defeated and that gave great satisfaction. “In Delft they have one of four meters and we have one of six meters,” says Jilles beaming.
Not all students need Super Mario because it comes from the eighties. “I was born in 1998,” says Renate Debets (24). “This is way before my time.”
“They would lie in bed with a hangover and wake up from our sawing sound.”
The students put about 450 hours into the controller. Cutting and drilling in particular took a lot of time. “We don’t have a workshop,” says Renate. “Because the controller is so big, we put up a party tent in the garden of our student house. Then we could continue working in wind and weather. From nine in the morning to nine at night we were sawing.”
It was also sometimes hard for the housemates. “They get another case of beer from us. They were in bed with a hangover and woke up from our sawing sound.”
Meanwhile, the game continues. A student regularly stops to take a photo. “People respond enthusiastically. They take their call to film. It attracts a lot of attention.”
The controller will be there until Thursday 1 December and anyone who wants to try it can come by, but preferably with four of them.
